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Bob Wolfley | SportsDay

Rodgers has lingering pain from Packers' season

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said Tuesday he would not be playing in the Pro Bowl on Jan. 27 in Honolulu because of an ankle injury.

He chose not to be much more specific.

"I didn't pass my physical," Rodgers said during his weekly radio show on WAUK-AM (540) with reporter Jason Wilde.

Players selected for the Pro Bowl are not required to pass a physical. Rodgers was referring to the physical Packers players get after the season ends.

Wilde asked if it "lower extremity" or "upper extremity."

"There (are) multiple lower extremities," Rodgers said. "I did get banged up in the (49ers) game and I have been on the injury report at various times during the season with my ankles hurting me. I would say my ankle has definitely been a problem. I have been on the injury report at least once with that. But I'm not going (to the Pro Bowl)."

In coach Mike McCarthy's season-ending news conference later Tuesday in Green Bay, he said Rodgers failed his physical because of his knee but that the quarterback would have to provide any more information.

Although Rodgers won't be at the Pro Bowl, the Packers' staff will coach for the NFC.

Last year, Rodgers criticized the quality of the competition in the game.

"I'm sorry to the Green Bay fans that are going to be there," Rodgers said. "It is a good trip and the NFL does a good job of putting the trip together. And I won't say anything about the game."

Rodgers mentioned two portions of the 45-31 playoff loss to San Francisco on Saturday that particularly were bothersome to him.

"Three and out in the first drive, that's frustrating," Rodgers said. "Then the third quarter. We have been a team that scored a good amount of points in the third quarter; we have had success in our first drive out of the half. If there was ever a time to give our defense some confidence and take the lead there it was our first drive in the third quarter.

"We gave it up pretty quickly. But thankfully our defense did a better job there in the third. We tied the game up. We had a chance to take the lead there a couple of times, just didn't do it. We knew we were going to have to score some points. They have a very good offense. The quarterback is playing real hot. We definitely left some points out there on the field."

Rodgers was asked about watching his team's defense struggle against San Francisco's offense.

"It's frustrating because you can control only what you can control," Rodgers said. "We like to focus on ourselves on the offensive side of the ball and the missed opportunities we had. We could have made things a little easier for our defense and not let them have so many running opportunities had we made more of our possessions. In a game like that, I think we had nine possessions and we scored on a good amount of them but didn't do a good enough job there."

There has been speculation among fans about the job security of defensive coordinator Dom Capers.

Rodgers was asked if he would be surprised or disappointed if Capers did not return to the Packers in that role.

"That is talk that is outside the building," Rodgers said. "I don't think that has a huge bearing on decisions that Coach McCarthy is going to make. I would be surprised. Dom and I have formed a friendship over the last few years and really enjoyed what he did for the defense. Obviously, we ran into a scheme that gave us a lot of problems. But Dom got us to a Super Bowl, we won a Super Bowl with the defense that he runs."

Rodgers was asked if he felt the team was at a crossroads, knowing how hard it is to get to where they got this season and last season, a divisional playoff game, after winning the Super Bowl.

"I feel we got a lot of guys signed for the foreseeable future," Rodgers said. "We have a lot of the pieces in place. I just think that we can win with the guys we have. I think we need to add a couple of pieces, add some depth through the draft like we do every year.

"But we just need to figure some things out within the locker room, think hard about what was so special about the 2010 team that won the Super Bowl and try and channel some of those emotions, ideas, thoughts and feelings and incorporate some of that stuff at the beginning of year. . . when we reconvene in April. Kind of set the vision then. . . So we need to do a better job as leaders of setting the vision early and then holding guys accountable to falling in line with what that vision is."

There were two aspects of the 2010 season Rodgers mentioned he would like to replicate.

"A very strong appreciation of the opportunity," Rodgers said. "For whatever the reason the appreciation wasn't the same this year. The guys were just really thankful to have a job, in some cases, some of the guys we brought in.

"But also thankful to be able to get into the playoffs, to be somewhere where they felt special and felt important. It was a very united group more than we have had in any of the eight years I've been a part of.

"The second part was we were hungry. We hadn't done it before. There were a lot of doubters out there. It's hard I think when you have success to be able to have the same amount of hunger that you had when you haven't had that success. We need to be able to figure out how to get back to that place."

Call SportsDay at (414) 223-5531 or send email to bwolfley@journalsentinel.com